The German post-production facility Rotor Film has installed a 69-loudspeaker Meyer Sound cinema system in its recently opened mixing stage—the largest in Europe that offers both Dolby Atmos and Auro-3D immersive surround sound technologies. Located in the Babelsberg “Media City” complex in Potsdam, the room features one of the largest Meyer Sound cinema monitoring systems ever installed.
Before making the critical decision on loudspeakers, Rotor Film held intensive comparative listening tests, with participation by management, staff, and associated independent mixing engineers.
“We invited about 20 sound designers and freelance engineers as our guests to listen to a wide range of audio samples,” says Christoph Engelke, technical director at Rotor Film. “Based on everyone’s listening experiences, a Meyer Sound system was the clear choice for our two top managers, Holger Lehmann and Martin Frühmorgen, and myself.”
To accommodate mixing for 5.1, 7.1, and Dolby Atmos, the system comprises three Acheron® 100 screen channel loudspeakers, four HMS-12 and 30 HMS-10 surround loudspeakers, and nine X-800C high-power cinema subwoofers. For Auro-3D extension, the system includes another three Acheron 100 loudspeakers and 20 more HMS-10 loudspeakers.
“So far, we’ve had a very good response from visiting engineers on the Meyer Sound system’s performance,” reports Engelke.
Equipped with seating for 200, the 400-square-meter room can be used to both mix and screen films. It features an Avid Pro Tools S6 mixing console with 64 faders and four Pro Tools systems running HD11 and HD12 software. In addition to a full slate of plug-ins from Waves, Altiverb, iZotope, and others, the studio also offers outboard effects by Lexicon, TC Electronic, and Eventide. Color grading is achieved with a Baselight TWO system on a Blackboard 2 control surface, and films are screened with either a Barco DP4K-32B digital projector or an all-format Kinoton film projector onto a 14.5-by-6.1-meter screen.
Rotor Film is located in the Babelsberg Medienstadt (Media City), a district of Potsdam that has been a center for film production since 1912, as well as for television in recent decades. Historic films produced at Studio Babelsberg include “Metropolis” and “Blue Angel,” while more recent productions include “The Bourne Ultimatum,” “The Hunger Games: Mockingjay,” “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and “Bridge of Spies.”
